June 9, 2025
FST: Will Your House Be Their Next Meal?
Presented by Dr. Siavash Taravati
Formosan subterranean termites are one of the most destructive urban pests in the world and also the only termite species listed in the ‘100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species.' Endemic to East Asia, this termite is now established in many tropical and subtropical regions, including across the American South. Annually, its infestation costs more than $4 billion in control measures and damage repairs of structures in the U.S.
Only a handful of FST infestations have been identified in California since 1992. However, once FST is established in an area, there have been no records of successful eradication anywhere in the world. A major reason why the Formosan subterranean termite is so destructive is the enormous size of their colonies, which can reach millions of individuals, versus most native subterranean species that reach a few hundred thousand individual termites per colony. Also, unlike California native subterranean termite species, FST can attack and kill live trees and plants.
 | Siavash Taravati is an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Advisor at UC ANR’s UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) in Riverside County. His job involves doing research and extension activities on different aspects of structural IPM. He covers a highly populated area which includes but is not limited to Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties. Also, he is a member of University of California Statewide IPM program. Dr. Taravati specifically works on structural pests (i.e. any pest that occurs inside or around buildings) such as termites, cockroaches, store product pests, ants, flies, etc.
|
June 10, 2025
Anticipating the Next Invasive Threat to California
Presented by Dr. Mark Hoddle
In his 2023 paper "A New Paradigm: Proactive Biological Control of Invasive Insect Pests," Dr. Mark Hoddle notes that 44% of invasive species that establish in California originate from invasion bridgeheads established elsewhere in the US and Canada, Dr. Hoddle advocates for conducting “horizon scans” for “door knocker” species that have already established those invasion bridgeheads and are exhibiting a propensity for spread. In the case of spotted lanternfly, which is well established in the Northeastern US, researchers used horizon scanning , determined the potential threat to California agriculture, sourced an egg parasitoid directly from China for potential use as a biological control agent and assessed the parasitoid’s host range and host specificity prior to the arrival of spotted lanternfly in California – keep in mind that it has not yet established here. Dr. Hoddle further suggests that we also should be scanning for unknown or unpredictable entities that fall into the “emerging invasive species” category prior to them establishing “invasion bridgeheads” and becoming obvious “door knockers” which could be done by focusing on pests at the point of origin for crops that are imported here in large volumes.
 | Dr. Mark Hoddle has headed the research in the UC Riverside Applied Biological Control Research laboratory since 1997 and is primarily involved in the identification of pest problems where biological control could be a successful approach. The location, release and evaluation of natural enemy impacts on population growth features strongly in his research. The evaluation of biological control agents are conducted primarily in the field and, when necessary, aspects of both pest and natural enemy biology and behavior are studied in the laboratory. He is also the director of theCenter for Invasive Species Research. |